Says Funk, who owns a high score of 289 and averages 196 on league night: "In the trends of bowling for the last fifteen, twenty years, league bowling is going down. Now that we have these nice, bright centers that are nonsmoking, people are taking their families. Open bowling is going up quite a bit."

So there's still money to be made in bowling?

Yes, but, take it from Funk: "The most lucrative part is the games -- the games and the laser tag."

And don't expect to see the Zone XL produce any hall-of-famers.

"A lot of people only go out two or three times a year," Funk says. "A lot of our strategy is [geared] toward kids' birthday parties."